Tax Lateral Hiring in 2026: Partner Moves Outpace the Market

Tax partner lateral moves are rising far faster than partner moves in the market as a whole. Sartori & Partners data show 272 tax partners joining a new firm in the settled 12 months to September 2026, up from 213 a year earlier, a rise of 27.7%. Partner moves across all practices rose 8.4% over the same windows. Tax is also a senior practice by mix: partners are 37.9% of its laterals, against 27.7% for the market. For a firm planning a tax hire, both facts point the same way: the competition is for partners, and it is getting busier.

Measured on the settled windows, tax partner arrivals rose 27.7%, from 213 to 272. Across every practice, partner arrivals rose 8.4%, from 3,558 to 3,858. The tax rise is 3.3 times the market's. Tax hiring at all levels rose 23.8%, from 592 to 733, so partners grew faster than the practice around them.

The neighbors split. Funds and investment management partner moves rose 29.7%, slightly ahead of tax, on 214 moves. Private client and estates partner hiring was flat within the noise, at 109 against 90: the counts are too small to call a direction. The growth in tax partner demand points to the transactional side more than the estates side.

The calendar years tell the same story. By the end of October, 241 tax partners had moved in 2026, already past the full 2025 count of 223. Partner moves in the whole market stood at 3,540 against 3,594 for all of 2025, not yet past the prior year. Tax partner moves have climbed every year since the 2023 low of 181.

A firm that waits for this to cool is betting against the run of years in the chart above. Each quarter of delay means more firms bidding for the same tax partners, so a search opened now meets less competition than one opened next year.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, 269 of the 709 tax lawyers who changed firms in the year to October 2026 were partners. That share, 37.9%, sits 10.2 points above the market's 27.7%. Associates are 48.5% of tax moves against 58.5% overall; counsel are close to the market at 12.6% against 12.7%.

The tilt toward partners has grown. Partners were 32.5% of tax moves in 2022 and 37.7% in 2026 to date. Promotion through a move is also more common: 15.5% of tax movers joined at a higher title than the one they left, against 12.9% for the market. And fewer tax lawyers leave private practice: since May 2026, moves in-house equal 8.2% of tax lateral moves, against 13.1% across the market.

The practical reading: a tax partner is not a rare animal in the lateral market, but the associate bench behind partners is thinner than in most practices. A firm that hires a partner and expects to staff the team from the market will find fewer associates in motion, and some will want a title step to move.

Most tax lawyers carry a second practice, and the second practice divides them. 30.0% of tax movers also practice private client and estates work, the trusts and estate planning side. 26.4% also practice corporate and M&A, and smaller groups pair tax with private equity (10.7%) and funds (10.0%). These shares overlap, since one lawyer can carry several labels.

Seen from the other side, the estate link is even tighter. Tax is the second label of 64.4% of private client movers, against 12.0% of funds movers. The two candidate types also differ in seniority: partners are 32.6% of private client laterals and 36.7% of funds laterals.

A tax search that does not say which of the two it wants will collect both. Before a mandate opens, write down whether the seat serves family wealth or transactions; the candidate lists, the cities and the hiring firms differ for each.

Most large cities take a slightly smaller share of tax hiring than of the market. New York has a tax index of 93, London 94 and Los Angeles 87, all just under the market's own share. Two cities break the pattern. Boston took 3.4% of tax arrivals against 2.6% of all moves, an index of 131. Chicago took 5.2% against 4.2%, an index of 123.

The two candidate types help explain the two cities. Chicago is the largest city for private client hiring, with an index of 172 in that practice. Boston is a funds city, with a funds index of 189. A firm seeking an estates-minded tax partner should look hard at Chicago; one seeking a funds tax partner should start in Boston and New York.

Tax hiring at all levels is spread wide: 291 firms hired at least one tax lawyer, and the top 10 took 16.4% of arrivals against 12.9% for the market. At partner level the list tightens. The top 10 tax partner hirers took 20.3% of tax partner moves, against 13.5% for partner moves market-wide. Charles Russell Speechlys and Greenberg Traurig head the partner list, each in the 6-10 band.

Mid-size firms are a bigger part of the tax market than of the market as a whole. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 26.5% of tax laterals against 23.4% overall, while firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 49.9% against 53.6%. A firm outside the largest class is a credible bidder for tax talent, but it should expect one of the ten firms above to be in the same conversation.

Open the search early. Sartori & Partners data show tax partner moves rising 27.7% on the settled year, so the pool is active but so are the bidders. Define the seat before the search starts: an estates-facing partner and a deal-facing partner come from different practices, with 30.0% of tax movers carrying private client work and 26.4% carrying corporate work.

Look where the practice over-indexes. Boston, with an index of 131, and Chicago, at 123, hold more tax movers than their size suggests. Budget for the team behind the partner as a separate problem: associates are only 48.5% of tax moves, so plan to train or promote juniors rather than buy them all from the market.